News and Notes. 6i 



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ing of either natural or man-made barrens. This is evidenced 

 by the fact that out of over one milHon, four hundred thousand 

 acres of Crown Lands, only 5,297 acres are under license to 

 cut timber, the revenue from which during the past year was 

 slightly over $17,000. 



The provincial parliament of New Brunswick, at its session 

 last winter, provided for a survey, examination and classifica- 

 tion of the crown land areas of the Province. The report, as 

 provided in the Act, is to cover the following points: the char- 

 acter and quality of the lumber; the quantity of timber and the 

 reproductive capabilities of the various areas, estimating as ac- 

 curately as may be the annual growth of the timber upon each 

 area or tract ; the accessibility of the timber in each section ; the 

 cost of logging the different areas; the cost of stream-driving 

 to the point of manufacture ; and the location of the lands deemed 

 suitable for agricultural purposes. Owing to financial considera- 

 tions, it was not deemed practicable to create a separate organiza- 

 tion and provide for the collection of this very important infor- 

 mation on an intensive scale at first hand. The existing staff of 

 cruisers and scalers has therefore been charged with the duty 

 of collecting and compiling all available information along the 

 above lines, under the supervision of Mr. W. H. Berry, Superin- 

 tendent of Scalers. The Provincial Government feels that at 

 least the great bulk of the above information can be collected in 

 this way, to an extent sufficient for present needs, and consistent 

 with financial considerations'. It is, however, obvious, that the 

 required study of reproduction and rate of growth must be 

 handled in an entirely different way, since information of this 

 kind can be secured only as result of close and detailed study 

 by men w^ho have been especially trained for this class of work. 

 It is expected that the necessity for securing this class of in- 

 formation, as well as for supplementing the estimates made by 

 the staff' of cruisers and scalers, will result in the establishment 

 of a forestry branch in the Crown Lands Department, with a 

 technically trained forester in charge. This action will prove not 

 only logical but necessary, since the crown lands of the province 

 return an annual revenue of over half a million dollars to the 

 provincial treasury, and the absolute necessity of providing ade- 

 quately for the perpetuation of this resource can not long be 



